Munzenrieder, Niko, Vogt, Christian, Petti, Luisa, Salvatore, Giovanni, Cantarella, Giuseppe, Büthe, Lars and Tröster, Gerhard (2017) Oxide thin-film transistors on fibers for smart textiles. Technologies, 5 (2). a31. ISSN 2227-7080

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Abstract

Smart textiles promise to have a significant impact on future wearable devices. Among the different approaches to combine electronic functionality and fabrics, the fabrication of active fibers results in the most unobtrusive integration and optimal compatibility between electronics and textile manufacturing equipment. The fabrication of electronic devices, in particular transistors on heavily curved, temperature sensitive, and rough textiles fibers is not easily achievable using standard clean room technologies. Hence, we evaluated different fabrication techniques and multiple fibers made from polymers, cotton, metal and glass exhibiting diameters down to 125 µm. The benchmarked techniques include the direct fabrication of thin-film structures using a low temperature shadow mask process, and the transfer of thin-film transistors (TFTs) fabricated on a thin (≈1 µm) flexible polymer membrane. Both approaches enable the fabrication of working devices, in particular the transfer method results in fully functional transistor fibers, with an on-off current ratio >107 , a threshold voltage of ≈0.8 V, and a field effect mobility exceeding 7 cm2 V −1 s −1 . Finally, the most promising fabrication approach is used to integrate a commercial nylon fiber functionalized with InGaZnO TFTs into a woven textile.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Engineering and Informatics > Engineering and Design
Research Centres and Groups:	Sensor Technology Research Centre
Depositing User:	Niko Munzenrieder
Date Deposited:	05 Jun 2017 08:24
Last Modified:	02 Jul 2019 19:22
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/68308

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